Maketh Man
by kadybug srf
Summary: Laxus just wanted to be able to sleep again, after hearing that. That's all. He harbors no illusion that this adventure will gain him glory. Set after The Battle of Fairy Tail, before events of Tenrou. Rated T for gruesome visuals and adult concepts. Trigger warning: extreme pain/torture of a magical nature.
1. Prelude to Pain

_The image of Makarov's salute at the festival flashed through Laxus's mind._

The sky was miserable; it was high noon, but the clouds were dark and thick, spitting a frigid rain on the world below.

Laxus trudged down a muddy path, his shoes squelching in the filth. His eyes were gritty and his mouth tasted horrible. The last town he was in had lauded his name--Laxus, grandson of Makarov, the pride of Fairy Tail. They hadn't heard the news yet.

Three days ago, the Battle of Fairytail had concluded. Laxus had a lot on his mind--his grandfather, the failure of Fairy Law, what Fairy Tail stood for, what his former guildmates meant to him. Only it wasn't his guild anymore; it shouldn't be his problem. But he couldn't seem to banish the thoughts.

Laxus came to a halt beside a tree; the branches provided a meager cover from the weather and he leaned against the broad trunk.

Time. Time and rest were what he needed to put this from his mind. Laxus slid to sit on the ground. His knees obscured the road he'd traveled from his view. Laxus rested his hands in his hair, and he stared blankly at the ground before him.

He didn't know how long he sat there before he heard it. His ears pricked before he was aware of the sound, and goosebumps began playing along his arms.

"What is that?" Laxus muttered, focusing his attention on the distraction.

The forest behind him seemed to echo with a faint, tinny sound, almost like a distant whistle or...

Laxus stood immediately. The sound wasn't a whistle--it was a scream. Somewhere behind him, almost too far for even his senses to detect, someone was screaming--a high, continuous noise wracked with agony.

Laxus started walking in the direction of the noise; as he traveled, the sounds became louder and clearer. He was sure of it: this was someone in deep and intense pain. A little closer, and he determined that it was most likely a girl, a young girl, screaming.

Laxus came to the edge of a clearing. The sound was more apparent here than ever; he was close to whoever was in trouble. Laxus scanned the area, but gained no insight. This seemed to be a simple clearing, with nothing readily special about it. Yet, when Laxus pushed further on, the screams became muffled and more distant. He circled back to the clearing. This, then, was the place.

Laxus thought back to the times he'd talked with Freed about enchantment magic. At the time, Laxus thought it was a waste. Power and cunning would outmatch mere words any day. Since then, Laxus had gained an appreciation for the art, even utilizing it in his bid for power.

Now, Laxus called up the command to reveal hidden enchantments, spoke the words concisely into the clearing.

Words began to flow into place, piece by piece. When they had assembled, a wall of script had manifested before him.

Laxus began slowly translating pieces of the wall of text. The language was old and sinister and complex, an out of favor script nothing like the common language spoken across Fiore today.

It took Laxus longer than normal to do the work, because each scream distracted him. The screams came at random, and some were more ragged than others. Some were little more than amplified sobs, or piercing wails that harbored an undertone of broken defiance.

After a few minutes that were punctuated by the horrible screams, Laxus gathered that the script obscured something here, a construct of some sort; the very substance of the construct was entertwined with the enchanted script before him. The construct was magically hidden away, and the only doorway Laxus could make heads or tails of in the reference was...

Laxus thought of the landscape he had passed through. The character identifying the placement of the doorway translated simply to 'water.' Laxus tried but failed to remember any streams or ponds nearby. He considered searching further out, but something seemed off.

If this place wasn't the entrance, why would the sounds be coming from here? Laxus paused and contemplated.

"Of course," he mumbled to himself. Laxus thought back to the days he had spent at the guild.

 _Levy McGarden, a short young girl with a purple sweep of hair, jumped up with a cheer from the book she had been studying. The rest of the mages in the guildhall paused briefly about their business._

 _Levy pointed dramatically at her glass and proclaimed, "Solid Script! Water!"_

 _Her guildmates oohed and aahed as the word "water" appeared formed from the clear liquid, and it splashed into the cup._

 _Levy held up the glass with a proud grin. "I did it!"_

 _The others congratulated her and a celebration began to roll through the first floor of the guild._

 _Laxus looked on from the second floor and scoffed. He was so loftily assured that he was a much better wizard than plain old Levy McGarden_.

 _Later, though, in secret, he went to the library. He read about Solid Script. He wanted to know how Levy did it. He read, and he practiced, and he cursed. Finally, he managed it. He looked on the water in the glass with a grin. His grin slowly faded._

 _What use was the skill if no one was around to congratulate him? Besides, he didn't want anyone to know he had copied Levy, of all people._

 _Laxus swore to himself he would never again use Solid Script magic._

Laxus remembered feeling so lost on that day. He had sworn never to use that spell again; sworn that he would never put himself in another wizard's shadow ever again. However, if he was right, it might be the answer to this riddle. Laxus concentrated his energy and his mind. He focused on pulling the word out of his thoughts and into the air before him.

"Solid Script: Water," Laxus murmured. The word wavered into view, projected itself forward, and splashed onto the character meaning "water."

The character began to glow, and the earth began to shake. Laxus braced himself. A light pierced through the forest, outlining a rounded door from the bottom of one side, over the top, and down to the other side to meet the earth again.

Laxus looked at the door and thought about what he was doing. No one had hired him. No one had called him, or asked for his help. Indeed, no one even knew he was here. And yet... Laxus knew he wouldn't sleep again if he let those screams continue.

Laxus grasped the handle and pulled the door open. It was heavy but well balanced, and it swung open with ease.

Laxus stepped into the doorway and into the shadows. He turned and looked at the forest a last time. Laxus pushed the heavy door closed with a deep grating sound. As he suspected, the same light appeared to trace the doorway, and the door dissapeared. The stone wall stared serenly back at Laxus, as though nothing had happened there at all.

END CHAPTER


	2. Into Darkness

Laxus looked down the hallway to his left, waiting for his senses adjust. Magelights were placed here and there along the hall to keep the darkness at bay; the effect was minimal. The shadows clung to the walls in a think blanket, encroaching on the isolated pools of light. Silence rang in Laxus's ears, only broken by the sounds of his own breathing and heartbeat.

Laxus glanced the other way, noting that the hallway stretched in both directions. The same shadows were there, too, surrounding the flickering magical lights.

The shadows in this place seemed strange somehow, different from normal shadows. In his time as an S class wizard, Laxus had heard whispers of research into all sorts of forbidden things, so he did not discount any possibilities for now.

Laxus took a cautious step forward. Smells and sounds hit him in a confusing rush, muddled together under a queasy sense of fear and panic and pain. He could pick out the distant cries of children, footsteps that clicked and echoed on the stone floor, the sounds of so many hearts racing in fear or anticipation. He smelled urine and sweat and the stench of soiled clothes and unwashed bodies; it all gathered in a fetid wave that noseblinded him, causing his vision to become spotty and grey at the edges. His stomach revolted.

Laxus stumbled against the wall and pressed a hand to his face, trying not to retch. He stood there until his vision slowly returned to normal; he allowed himself time to adjust to the sudden slew of new information. He wondered vaguely if the entrance had been trapped; the shadows might have been interfering with his senses somehow. Rumors were one thing, but Laxus found that experiencing such matters first hand was quite another situation and he found little comfort in knowing that the effects weren't likely to be permanent.

Laxus took a deep breath just as another scream pierced through the air, the first since Laxus had entered the structure. The sound echoed through the stone hall, seeming to vibrate through his body and setting his teeth on edge. When it was over, Laxus grimaced. He straightened carefully and brushed himself off, then began walking toward where the sound had come from.

The air seemed to grow heavier the further Laxus got from the entrance, and he began to hear strange noises. Hums and clicks and a strange noise that reminded Laxus of the long nights he once had spent sleeping in some unforgiving forest. Time seemed to slow to a crawl. Laxus frowned and glanced suspiciously toward every shadow. They seemed to move around the edges of his vision. What was going on here?

Another scream echoed out abruptly, causing Laxus to nearly jump out of his skin. The sound had come from directly ahead of him, echoing from around a bend Laxus hadn't yet noticed. After the scream had subsided, Laxus crept to the corner and slowly peered around it.

What he saw would make him sick for weeks. A young girl, barely into her teenage years, was strapped to a table. Wires and tubes of all sorts bristled from her body, with the thickest nest centered on the left side of her head. Most of her hair was cut woefully short to allow the wires to contact her skull, and rest of the sandy pink mess stuck up in odd angles. Her breathing was heavy and sporadic, and her body twisted itself in agony.

Because he was so close, Laxus was able to hear the beginning of the next scream. A puff of air was expelled heavily through her nose; a hissing breath slipped through clenched teeth; then a useless flapping of the jaw began in shock and protest; finally emerged a keening, increasing in volume until the raw sound poured from her throat, echoing through the chamber and beyond.

A figure walked into view in the chamber with the girl; a tall, thin man in a labcoat. Laxus watched the technician record a few things on a notepad. The man studied readouts for a few moments then spun one of four dials on a control panel near where she was restrained. On the table, the girl's head wrenched even more violently as she spasmed against her restraints. Her scream turned into choked, gurgling sounds and her face jerked to point toward Laxus by chance. The single hazel eye was unseeing, bulging in pain and terror. Where her left eye should have been was a large, hollow blackness that housed a shining red crystal no bigger than the tip of Laxus's thumb.

Laxus swallowed again and pushed all thoughts out of his mind but one: This had to be stopped.

He strode forward, emboldened by fury; electricity crackled in the air around him.

"HEY!" Laxus called out in a booming voice that echoed as he stormed into the room, "WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?"

Laxus called lightning to his hand, let it crackle along his skin. He felt his teeth begin to sharpen, but he swallowed his anger down. The Dragonforce would not help him save this girl, it would only bring out the beast in him and make more collateral damage.

The man taking notes spun around to face the disruption and took several steps back.

"Hey, you can't be in here," the man warned. He was young and slender, with a glass monocle gracing one eye. The man slipped his hand into his coat and retrieved a pocketwatch, setting his note pad on a table behind him.

This caused Laxus to laugh; a deep, grating noise that seemed to reverberate off the stone endlessly.

"Are you going to time me?" he asked with a deceptively good-natured tone. "It shouldn't take that long to deal with you."

The man scoffed as he shook his head and said, "No, sir, but I will use this to end you."

"Oh yeah?" Laxus scoffed. "Try me!"

Laxus flew forward, faster than the other man had anticipated. Monocle man opened his pocketwatch and threw out his hand at Laxus, causing a large explosion. Rather, he threw his hand at where Laxus had been half a moment before the blast.

"Behind you," Laxus corrected him as he plowed an eletrified fist into the side of monocle man's head.

The technician shook his head and stumbled away. He managed to get to the wall and grab at another gadget to aid in the battle, but before the monocled man could finish closing his hand on the new tool, Laxus sent him flying with a lightning drenched roundhouse kick. Laxus jerked forward and grabbed the technician up by the lapels; the lightning dragon began to rain blows down, his judgement clouded by blind fury.

Electricity saturated the room as Laxus proceeded to beat the young man nearly senseless. Each hit was accompanied by a meaty thud and an arc of light through the room as Laxus beat his frustrations and revulsions out onto the man's flesh. Laxus did not stop until the girl began to cry out once more. Laxus let what was left of the man crumple to the floor and strode to the young girl's side as she gasped and jerked.

Laxus looked at the setup to try to analyze it, but most of it was beyond him. After a moment, he saw the dials that the technician had turned. Laxus focused on any symbols that were around the panel, and eventually he pieced together that they controlled something called the 'integration percentage'. Currently, the four dials were set to a cummulative 100%. Laxus dropped the last dial to 75% to see what would happen.

Immediately, the girl's face showed her relief. She stopped writhing and her breathing became less labored, but her eyes were still contorted in pain. A low whine started in the back of her throat. Laxus turned the next dial down, bringing the total to 50%. The girl shuddered and her head lolled to one side.

Laxus placed his hand on her shoulder; she cringed away with a whimper. Laxus didn't want to risk shutting this machine completely off without knowing what it was doing. He patted her shoulder gently.

"Hey," he said softly. "Hey, do you know where you are?"

The girl seemed to have trouble focusing, but she blinked several times before she groaned. She shrank further away until Laxus removed his hand from her shoulder, and then she licked her lips.

"Make it--" her voice was raspy and failed her at the end of her request. She let her head fall back as she gathered the strength to try again. "S-stop. Make it sstop."

Laxus nodded and returned his attention to the dials. He turned the third, to 25%, and the young girl sagged against her restraints with a soft sob. Laxus turned back the final nob, to 0%. The young girl's one good eye rolled back as she completely lost conciousness.

Laxus examined the bindings on the girl's limbs and pulled a knife out of his boot. He sawed through each leather strap quickly and sized up the rest of the mess that held her in place. He carefully explored the wires around her face and found that most ended in pads covered in a mild adhesive; these came loose with a gentle tug. He tugged the wires spawled over the rest of her body and was relieved that they all, too, were attached using the easily removed pads. Laxus examined the remaining wires. Two were connected directly to the crystal embedded into her face, fused to the surface as though the wires had simply sprouted there. Laxus suspected this was accomplished with another instance of the archaic script enchantment, but he didn't have time to confirm his suspicions. Someone could walk into this room at any time. Laxus decided to explore his options. He followed the wires to their opposite end and found a simple junction, similar to the plug of his old headphones: the two wires joined together for a short length before ending in a plug that fit snugly into a recess on the wall.

Laxus bit his lip. If he was wrong, this had the chance to really hurt the girl laying on the table; but Laxus was fairly certain that disrupting this connection had a good chance to sever the wires' link to the crystal in her face. Moments ago, when he had dialed the integration percentage down, the crystal had lessened in its glow and then faded completely. That meant there was a good chance the whole connection was fueled from beyond this junction, by some major lacryma or other source of magical energy; if he cut that power source off, the wires might just disconnect themselves.

Laxus cast a glance over his back at where the girl lay limply. He remembered the terror and resolve on her face.

"Oh, hell with it," he muttered. "She said, 'Make it stop,' so stop waiting around, Laxus. Do it!"

After this brief talk with himself, Laxus bit his lip and removed the base of the wire from the port in the wall.

From the table, the girl gasped. Laxus glanced over to see the wires slithering quietly off of her still unconcious form, off the bed, and onto the floor. His theory had been proven correct.

Laxus surveyed the remaining mess; two tubes that connected to her arm and a single wire that wrapped around her head and dipped behind her ears. Laxus examined the wire first, finding it to be easily malleable. He pried it gently from her ears, then from around her head. Finally, he examined the tubes. They appeared to be simple enough, just a basic infusion connector, similar to the ones from when he'd been a child.

Laxus closed his eyes against a sudden onslaught of memories. The doctors, technicians, and wizards that constantly surrounded him as a child; the pain and fear and anger that accompanied each treatment preparing him for the lacrima transplant. Laxus shook his head to clear his past from his mind.

Laxus opened his eyes and removed the tubes from the girl's arm with the ease of an old skill. It seemed years of not practicing didn't matter when you learned something like that by heart. Laxus cleared the disconnected wires and tubes from the bed and checked for other obstacles.

Certain there was nothing left now to restrain her, Laxus scooped up the young girl. With his size and strength, she seemed to weigh nothing and she sagged in his arms like a doll made out of rags.

Laxus cradled the girl to his chest and slipped out of the room. He kept his eyes open for anything that would help him find the exit--or anyone who might try to stop him. He saw no one, and all the sounds from before had stopped sometime during combat; when he had been beating the technician senseless.

As he walked back along the hallway, the girl stirred in his arms and groaned. Laxus murmured to her, assuring her that she was safe, as he scanned for the exact location of the door. The shadowy trap didn't seem much help in pinpointing the doorway; the sinister magic seemed to have abandoned this place. Laxus had noticed somewhere in the back of his mind as the magical pressure had changed, but between the thirst for violence choking him and the time taken to rescue the girl, he hadn't been able to investigate.

"Here," the girl whispered as Laxus passed another inconspicuous piece of stone wall. He stopped walking and looked at the girl in his arms.

"Here?" Laxus asked. "Are you sure?" It seemed much too close to the room where he'd found her. The hallway had seemed to stretch on longer the first time Laxus had been in it.

"Here," she repeated quietly but with conviction. "Just...touch the wall. The water is the key to the front entrance; the exit is not so secure."

Laxus complied, reaching out to touch the stone. The spot where his hand rested was warm, surprisingly so. The same light as before traced the doorway again, and Laxus was tugging at the doorway as the light began to dissipate. The door seemed to be heavier this time, or less balanced. It seemed to be hindering their escape; everything here seemed alive. As soon as Laxus stepped out from the threshold, the door swung shut on its own accord behind him. The wall of script reappeared and began to scramble, words disassembling before flying off into some point in the distance.

"The sanctuary moved," the girl stated, her voice rough.

"That means the entrance is gone," Laxus observed.

He had understood enough of the enchantments to realize that the placement of the doorway in this plane was a flexible thing. The girl nodded wearily.

"Good," Laxus said. "We can rest here, then."

The girl started to protest, but Laxus simply raised one eyebrow at her. She was still held aloft in his arms, her limbs limp like the ragdoll Laxus had compared her to.

"Fine," she admitted. "You can put me down by the tree over there."

She lifted her arm shakily to point one out, commanding a great deal of her strength to do so.

"Alright, shortstuff, you're like, twelve?" Laxus asked; she nodded wearily. "Two things: first, quit posturing. You don't have anything to prove to me. And two? Don't order me around."

Laxus's tone brooked no argument as he set her gently against her preferred tree.

"So," he continued, putting effort into making his tone lighter than he felt. "Do you have a name?"

"You first," she retorted. Her voice was frail but her tone was mocking.

Laxus licked his teeth and took a breath before he answered.

"I don't have a name," he lied.

"Me, neither," the girl said in an agreeable tone. "Looks like we have that in common."

Laxus inhaled sharply and pressed a hand to his nose, an old gesture he used to calm himself. He crouched down and looked at her.

"Would it kill you to show a little respect?" he asked.

She stared back at him peevishly.

"What were you doing out here, anyway?" she asked. Her limbs still shook, but her voice grew a bit stronger with every sentence.

Laxus looked away from her gaze and grunted dismissively. She poked him in the ribs.

"Hey!" he protested, turning to glare at her.

"Tell me," she demanded simply.

Laxus was silent for a moment, and then he conceded.

"Fine. I was walking."

"Walking," she repeated. He nodded. "Okay, why? Why all the way out here?"

Laxus didn't answer, and he instead studied his companion. He took in the raggedness of her breathing and the tightness in her face.

"We should get some rest," Laxus said, changing the subject. He stood and brushed off his clothing. "I'll get some wood for a fire."

"Hey," she called out as he walked away. "Hey, I was talking to you!"

Laxus just kept walking. When he returned in a short while with enough branches to last through the night, the young girl was already asleep against her tree.

Laxus built a campfire and watched the young girl sleep. He didn't allow himself to wonder too much; not tonight.

Laxus settled down against his own tree to pass the night.

\--END CHAPTER--

 **Author Notes: Goodness, it's been a while. A long time ago, in a galaxy far away, I was quite active on the interwebs writing scene. I was everywhere: I did fanfiction here and another lesser known archive, I was there when the RATs forum on lj was being formed (I remember the slews of new members when Yahoo featured the group on the front page!), I did Nanowrimo, at one point I even hung around the writing forums on Neopets (and did some of my best work in contests there). Now, here I am. I am an adult, and the time I took away from writing to -live- has come to a close. I am still living my life, but I have taken my writing out of hiatus.** **Not that this is all relevant here. First of all, the traditional disclaimer: _I do not own Fiore, Laxus, or any other Fairy Tail characters. The characters in this fic that aren't from canon are my original works; any resemblance to a person, real or fictional, is coincidence._** **This story is a prequel to a longer saga, one that is set after the completion of Fairy Tail. The manga is complete and I now wait for the English dub's release with bated breath. I have more fic being written that is also prequel stuff, but I may or may not post it here. There are no FT characters and it only explores portions of my own story canon.** **Thank you, thank you, thank you to the people who read, followed, favorited, and reviewed. You guys are the real super stars.** **Also: if you have constructive criticism...type it up. Please, red-pen-of-doom me. I can't get better if I don't know where to start.** **See you next week!!** **-srf.**

 _ **Update Post Script: So, since the previous chapter uploaded seamlessly, I am attempting to repost this chapter to correct a few errors. Thank you for pointing them out to me, and I apoligize for my sloppiness. _**_


	3. Nuts and Berries

The next morning, Laxus gathered nuts and mushrooms from the forest. He wrapped them in leaves from a nearby tree and nestled the two bundles into the coals of last night's fire to roast. While they cooked, he gathered a few handfuls of berries.

Once the food was done, he portioned out roughly half for himself, wrapped the leaves back around the remainder, and nestled the bundles in the ashes to keep them warm. He settled in to wait until his young companion woke up.

Laxus sat back against a tree, munching his breakfast as he considered his options. If this girl was an orphan, he could drop her at the next town. There was a church there that would take in stray children. But if she had a family, the least he could do was to see her safely home.

Laxus chewed a chestnut, deep in thought, when a sound drew his attention.

The girl was moaning in her sleep, twisting and mumbling. The effect was disconcerting when she turned her face in her sleep, giving Laxus full view of the gaping hole under her brow. During the night, she had slept tilted away from him, but now Laxus had an uncomfortable view of the crystal that was lodged where her eye should have been.

Laxus had the thought that he should wake her, but she spared him the trouble. Her good eye fluttered and she sat up, looking directly at Laxus. With a twitch of her head, her hair fell across her eye in a practiced accident; Laxus was familiar with the move. Every member of the Thunder Legion had used it at one point in their lives.

"So it wasn't a dream," she murmured to herself.

Laxus stood and brushed himself off. He walked to the remains of the fire and pulled out the two leaf bundles. He brushed off the soot, walked over to the young girl, and held them out to her.

She looked up at him in confusion.

"Come on, eat while it's still hot," he told her as he jabbed the packets toward her again.

She reached up and took the packs, unfurling the leaves to reveal the mushrooms and roasted nuts within.

While she was unwrapping, Laxus retrieved the berries he had saved for her. He thrust these at her, too, and she took them with wide eyes.

The girl quickly ate about half of the food, seeming to inhale it, and she regarded the rest hungrily.

"Here. Eat," she said as she waved the reserved portion at him.

Laxus smiled, putting forth effort to keep it from becoming a smirk, and he shook his head.

"I already have my food. That's all for you," he said.

Her stomach took that chance to growl, and the girl looked down at the food that remained. She took Laxus at his word and resumed eating.

Laxus sat back and finished his own ration of breakfast, popping the small handful of berries and nuts into his mouth at once and swallowing hastily.

"So," he spoke, breaking the silence. "Are you from around here?"

The girl nodded as she chewed; she didn't pause to reply aloud.

"Ok, that's a start," he said. "Do you have any family?"

The girl savored the berry she had selected, but once it was gone she gave Laxus her attention.

"Yes," she said, nodding. "I used to live with my mother and two sisters, years ago."

"I see," Laxus replied. "Do you know how to get there?"

She didn't reply, instead focusing on the food in front of her. The sat in silent while she ate. Laxus watched as she sorted her berries from largest to smallest, and again as she organized the roasted nuts. He was about to repeat his question when she took a breath and looked at him.

"After that, I lived at the sanctuary," she said. Her voice was soft but it almost seemed to echo through the trees. "That's the name of the compound that you rescued me from."

Laxus decided the girl needed food more than he needed answers, so he chose not to press her further for the moment.

He watched her eat for a while. She would pick the juiciest mushroom and savor it briefly, then she would follow it with one nut and then one berry. Laxus watched as she picked through the rest of her breakfast in this manner. The first portion she had inhaled; she savored every bite of the second.

Eventually, Laxus asked, "How long were you there?"

His voice was gentle and quiet. It was uncharacteristic of him to be 'gentle', but Laxus saw the horror he'd witnessed every time he blinked; this girl had lived it.

A tear fell from her right eye onto the leaves she had picked clean. If she noticed, she didn't seem to care.

"Three years," she said. Her voice was small, barely a whisper, but Laxus felt what she'd said in his soul. Three years. That was a long time to endure such treatment.

Laxus ignored his own feelings, dampening the righteous fury that welled up within him. That wouldn't help right now; there would be a reckoning for this travesty later. Right now, the girl needed to be seen to safety.

"Where does your family live?" Laxus asked again, quietly.

The girl wiped her face and pointed over Laxus's shoulder.

"Just over a few hills that way," she muttered. She looked down at the ground and her hair fell to obscure her face.

Laxus stood and brushed himself off.

"We can leave whenever you're ready," he said.

The girl glanced up at him warily.

"Why are you doing this?" she asked; suspicion was evident in her voice. "I don't have any money or things. I can't pay you."

Laxus bit his tongue and pulled back the verbal lashing on the tip of it.

"I'm not doing this for money," he told her, his voice tight. "I'm just doing what's right."

She stared up at him for a long time before she spoke again.

"Do you have any family?" she asked; the question took Laxus by surprise.

"Yes, I do," he said finally, carefully. "But not too long ago, I did something, something that was unforgivable. They don't want me around anymore."

"Oh, I see," she said. Her lips pursed and she told him, "When you leave here, you should go apologize."

Laxus laughed wryly and looked away. "It's not that simple."

"Why not?" she asked. "If you've done something wrong, you should apologize. If they're your family, they'll forgive you."

Laxus looked at her, annoyed .

"That's not going to be enough this time," he told her.

"Why not?" she repeated.

"Because it's not that simple," Laxus repeated. "I've done something terrible, something inexcusable."

"But they're your family," she insisted.

Laxus rubbed his temples, trying to allieviate the sudden strain.

"Look, we should get going soon," Laxus said, abruptly changing the subject. "Can you walk?"

The girl looked down and shrugged.

"I don't know," she admitted. "I think so?"

Laxus helped her to stand and they found that, though her legs were shaky, they would hold her weight.

He supported her as they walked for a few minutes, and she seemed to regain a bit of strength with each step. She stepped forward, free from his aid, and walked a while on her own.

When she began to wobble, Laxus wordlessly stepped up next her, and took her weight by slipping his hand under her arm. She leaned on him gratefully.

They continued on like this, her breaking away to walk free for a while, and then Laxus supporting her for another while.

\--END CHAPTER--

 **Author's Notes: Ok, less notes this time. The action is mostly over, just some character exploration for the next coupla chapters--for a grand total of 5 chapters. I'm sorry for the fact that I haven't corrected any of the errors in last week's chapter; I've already emailed the admins with a bug report; I'm having issues with the uploader removing my line returns when I try to upload the corrected document. . So the mistakes are gonna stay so you guys can read some paragraphs instead of a WALL'O'TEXT. Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU to everyone who read, followed, favorited, or reviewed. You guys are the best!**


	4. Making Camp

After the sun had risen high above the trees and dipped behind again on the other side, Laxus insisted they break for camp near a small stream.

"But we're halfway there!" the girl protested loudly--her legs shook, even with her upper body leaning heavily on Laxus for support.

"And I'm not going to carry you all the way there, which I will be if you try to keep going," Laxus pointed out. "Besides, this is the first stream we've come across, and streams mean food and water. We should stop here for the night."

Tears of frustration came to her eye, and she glared down at the ground. Her face was flushed.

"I suppose you're right," she admitted through clenched teeth.

He helped her sit up against a tree for support, and then he went about building a campfire. In a short while, the fire was crackling merrily. The girl warmed her hands as Laxus looked for a sturdy pole to use to fish for their supper.

Laxus selected a thin, slender sapling that was flexible but fairly strong and broke it off at the base with his hands. He dug in a pocket, lost somewhere in his signature fur coat, and produced a fishing line and hook. He assembled his fishing pole and walked closer to the water.

"What did you do with your knife?" the girl asked, pulling Laxus out of his reverie.

"What?" he asked, distracted. Laxus turned to look at her. "What knife?"

She gestured at his new pole, one end still shining with sap.

"Oh, yeah. No, I didn't cut this, I just snapped it off," Laxus said, admitting his more than human strength as though it was nothing.

"You snapped it," the girl repeated.

"Yeah, I snapped it," Laxus replied testily. "Now, any more questions before I catch some supper?"

The girl looked at him strangely, as though she were seeing him for the first time.

"Who are you?" she asked. "Why did you rescue me? Who sent you?"

Laxus sighed and rubbed his temple.

"Alright, in order: I'm the guy that saved you. I did it so I'd be able to sleep at night. No one sent me."

"I don't believe you," the girl told him.

Laxus shrugged.

"Believe what you want. I'm going to catch some fish, if I can. I'm hungry." With those words, Laxus took a seat by the stream and dropped in his fishing line with a small bug as his bait.

At the word hungry, the girl's stomach gurgled. She looked down at the ground and played idly with small tufts of grass and the twigs that littered any forest floor. She made patterns and destroyed them, anything to occupy her hands and her mind.

After a short while, Laxus had amassed a small pile of fish, each already impaled on a sharpened stick for roasting. He propped his catch around the fire to cook and turned to look at the girl. She was still moving sticks and dirt around but she stopped when she sensed his gaze; she glanced up at him.

"Are you familiar at all with the plants around here?" he asked her.

She looked around at the brush as though she was seeing it, too, for the first time; after a time, she nodded.

"Are any of these plants edible?" Laxus asked. The girl studied the plants around them for another moment before she replied.

"I'm pretty sure that these are wild greens that my mother used to prepare as a fresh salad," she replied, pointing to a patch of greenery that was wildly prolific in the area.

Laxus nodded and went about gathering the plants in silence. After he had two piles of leafy greens, Laxus turned each fish on its spit.

"What's your name?" Laxus asked the girl as he poked the fire with a stick.

She looked at him from where she sat, her knees drawn to her chest and secured firmly in the circle of her arms. She shook her head.

"What do you mean, no? Do you not remember?" Laxus queried, and the girl laughed. It was strange to hear the sound, and she looked surprised to have made it.

"What I mean," she said, "is that you haven't given me your name. Isn't it polite to introduce oneself before asking someone's name?"

It was Laxus's turn to laugh, a short barking sound.

"I guess you're right," he said. He let the matter drop.

Laxus poked at a fish testingly and nodded in approval. He removed the spits and divided the bounty in two portions, making sure the slightly heavier fish ended up in the young girl's half.

A rustling sound caused him to look up, and he frowned as he saw the girl struggling to stand up.

"Sit down," he said irritably. "I'll bring your food to you."

She did not reply except to peg him with a withering glare as she braced herself on the tree behind her. She took a few shaky steps forward and sat at the large rock where a pile of food was waiting, steam pouring off the fish. The girl looked directly into Laxus's eyes as she did so, daring him to challenge her again.

Laxus shrugged stiffly and sat at his own rock.

"Before I forget," he muttered as he started digging through yet another pocket of his coat. He produced a leaf-wrapped parcel and opened it to reveal a portion of the roasted nuts he had saved from that morning. He set half of them on the young girl's rock table and kept half for himself.

They ate in relative silence, set to the soundtrack of a crackling fire and a forest full of insects and night creatures that were beginning to stir.

"We should make pretty good time tomorrow," Laxus said around a mouthful of food. She didn't bother to reply, choosing instead to savor the meal. Laxus carried on anyway. "You said we were halfway there, which means this time tomorrow you'll be home, and I'll be on my way."

The words seemed to weigh heavy between the pair as they ate; it was just two days ago that they had become traveling companions, but it seemed odd and even jarring that they would part so soon.

"You really should go find your family and apologize," the girl said quietly. Laxus looked up at her peevishly. "I mean it," she said. "If they are your family, then they love you. If you've done something, then apologize. Things won't simply become right again, you have to make them right."

Laxus considered her words as they ate. He remembered the final Fairy Tail salute on his last day in Magnolia; the whole guild was watching him, waiting for him, wherever he went. Maybe this strange girl was right. Perhaps he should spend some time trying to correct his mistakes, to learn from them instead of running from them.

The pair finished their meal to the sound of the crickets and the night birds. When nothing was left but scales and bones, Laxus gathered the refuse and buried it a good distance from their camp to avoid bringing predators in the night. When he had returned, the girl had returned to her seat against the tall tree and her eye was closed. She appeared to be alseep or nearly so.

Laxus made a small pallet of leaves and tucked his coat under his head for a pillow. This time tomorrow, the girl would be with her family. As he drifted into sleep, Laxus wondered what his own family was up to.

\--END CHAPTER--

 **Author's Notes: Thank you, once again, for joining me. Shoutout to my reviewers, you guys are the bomb!! I love feedback and I truly enjoy what I have gotten and any feedback you choose to share in the future. This is the second to last chapter, not much happens.** **Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail, its setting, or its characters. I created all original characters, resemblance to any persons real or imagined is purely coincidental.**


	5. The Journey Home

The morning birds were chirping and the stream was gurgling merrily when Laxus opened his eyes. He took in the clearing and the remains of a campfire. He listened for Evergreen and Bickslow, because they were always bickering. As his eyes cleared, Laxus remembered that neither Bickslow nor Evergreen were with him.

The weight of the past week resettled on Laxus, and he glanced at his young charge. The girl looked like she had slept fitfully, her hair rumpled and her clothes even more wrinkled than before.

Laxus stood and stretched, wiping the sleep from his eyes. He walked to the stream to fill his canteen with fresh water and to splash his face and neck. He gathered more greens for their breakfast and wandered further out in search of berries or nuts or mushrooms. He returned empty-handed except for more bristling fistfuls of the green herb.

Laxus sighed. Salad for breakfast, what a sad concept. When he returned to the campsite, the girl was sitting beside the remains of the fire, poking a few leaf-wrapped packs with a stick.

"What is this?" Laxus asked, setting the herbs on a wide, flat rock.

"Wild tubers," she replied. "My sisters and I used to gather them for supper."

Laxus nodded appreciatively. Tubers meant more energy, which meant they would probably finish the trip today after all.

"You gathered these yourself?" he asked. She nodded, holding up a chubby stick caked in dirt. Laxus sighed in agitation, but he saved his breath. The girl was evidently determined to do things her way.

She poked the packs another time and was apparently satisfied, because she rose up on her knees and scraped the packs out of the coals with her stick. Laxus bent and grabbed both packs and handed her one. She dropped hers immediately on the rock that served as her table.

"Are they the same thing?" he asked. She nodded as she sat back on her rear. Laxus passed her a pile of greens and they began to eat their breakfast.

When they finished, Laxus buried the campfire and gathered the small things strewn about the site: his fishing line and hook, a blade used to sharpen the spits last night, a small stone to remember this place by.

It was an odd habit, saving rocks from important campsites, but it was an old habit. Long ago, on his first camping trip with his grandfather, Laxus had saved a river stone to keep alive the memory of that trip. Since then, he would slip a stone into his pocket on any truly memorable excursion. This felt like a journey he wouldn't soon forget.

When the campsite was cleared, Laxus helped the girl to stand. She slapped his hand away even as she wobbled. The two of them began walking at an easy pace. Laxus was pleased to see that the girl seemed stronger today. Her legs didn't shake and she walked unaided for hours.

When the sun was beginning to set, her breathing had become ragged.

"We should stop," Laxus told her, and she glared at him.

"My home is over that last hill," she told him through clenched teeth as she pressed on. "I am not going to stop until I am home."

Laxus nodded, but he eyed her worriedly. Her legs were shaking and she had been proclaiming the closeness of her family's home since the night before.

As they came up the hill she'd pointed to, the girl's face broke into a sunny smile; her first smile since Laxus had met her.

"There it is," she said reverently, pointing. Laxus looked out and spied the small cottage that was tucked into a bend of the stream. A postage stamp of a garden decorated the back of the house and a stream of smoke trailed from the tiny chimney. The whole effect was one of cozy harmony with the land.

The girl took another step forward, and her legs gave out from under her. Laxus caught her before she could kiss the ground, and she cried out in frustration.

"Easy, biscuit," Laxus told her, catching her hands as she tried to smack him. "Just trying to keep the dirt out of your mouth."

Tears came to her eye and she swore.

"I'm right here," she said in a small voice. "I'm right here, but I'm too damn weak to get there."

Laxus eyed the distance to her home, a good half of a mile. He nodded once to himself, then he scooped the girl up into his arms and kept walking.

"What are you doing?? Put me down!!" She punctuated her outburst with several smacks on his shoulders, but Laxus ignored her.

"Shut up," he said simply.

The girl's face burned red with shame, but she didn't protest again.

He walked on, uninterrupted until a coyote crossed their path a while later. Laxus stopped dead in his tracks and fixed his gaze on the animal. The coyote looked at him, sniffed the air, and whined before turning tail and running from the apex predator it had just encountered.

Laxus pressed on, ignoring the rumbling in his stomach. He was almost there. He looked at the girl in his arms; she had slumped against him and seemed to be alseep.

As he stepped into a clearing, he heard a twig snap behind him. Laxus didn't pause, but he did slow his pace and trained his ears behind him. Someone was following him.

Laxus weighed his options and decided to make his stand here, before he got to the girl's house. If it was trouble, he didn't want to leave it for her and her family to deal with. Laxus gently laid the girl in his arms against a tree, and she mumbled a protest in her sleep. Laxus turned to the most recent diection of the noises following him.

"Show yourself," Laxus spoke into the clearing. His voice was low but commanding, and it carried into the trees.

A small figure stepped out from the shadows, holding a crossbow trained on Laxus.

"What do you want from us?" the figure asked. Laxus studied the newcomer wrapped in shadows and a deeply hooded cloak.

"What do you want from me?" Laxus retorted.

"You are tresspassing here," the figure informed him. The voice was clear and decidedly not gentle, but Laxus felt the hair on his neck stand up. That voice seemed just a few steps removed from familiar, very similar to that of his traveling companion.

"You must be her sister," Laxus decided. He took a step forward, but the figure gestured him back with the weapon.

"No further," the figure said in a tone that brooked no argument.

Laxus held his hands up, a gesture of peace and compliance.

The figure stared at him for a long while and then finally lowered the crossbow.

"What do you want from us?"

Laxus gestured at the girl he'd been traveling with.

"She said that she lived here, once. I'm just returning her home," Laxus said.

"Lies!" The weapon pointed at him again. "Lies and trickery! My sister is dead!"

The girl stirred where Laxus had set her; her one eye opened and she moaned.

"Stay where you are!" the figure shouted, and the weapon turned to the girl.

The girl blinked once, then twice, as she took in the situation around her.

"M-meyera?" the girl asked in a small voice.

The crossbow slipped to point to the ground, and the figure threw off her hood to reveal a girl's face with short black hair and startling green eyes.

"Meyera!" the girl that Laxus had saved was struggling to stand, and the girl who had threatened him--Meyera--watched warily. Meyera shook her head as tears came to her eyes. The crossbow hit the ground as Meyera rushed forward to help her sister.

"It really is you," Meyera said in a voice thick with emotion. She brushed the hair out of her sister's face and paused when she saw the crystal. "What happened to you? They told us you had died!"

The girl simply shook her head with tears streaming down the right side of her face as she clung to Meyera.

Laxus retreated a bit into the woods.

"Look," he began, and both girls turned to him. "I did what I set out to do, so I'm going to leave now..."

Meyera nodded but her sister shook her head vehemently.

"No, you can't just leave!" she exclaimed.

Meyera rubbed her sister's shoulders.

"Come on, sis, let's get you home," Meyera said.

"But I have to thank him!" her sister protested, turning to gesture at Laxus--but he was already gone.

Meyera took her sister's arm and slung it over her own shoulder.

"Come on," Meyera repeated. "Let's get you home."

Her sister looked across the clearing, searching for any sign of her rescuer.

"Penney," Meyera said, putting her hands on her sister's cheeks and looking into her face. Meyera looked at her for a long time before wrapping her arms around her long lost sister. "Let's just go home."

FIN

 **Author's Notes: Perhaps it's not quite what you'd expect; this fic stands alone fairly decently, but it is actually a prequel to another, quite larger fanfic saga.**

 **Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who read, favorited, followed, and reviewed. A special big shout out to my recurring reviewers!!! You guys are amazing!**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail, its setting, or its characters. The three original characters in this fic are my own creations; any resemblance to persons real or fictional is coincidental.**

 **And sadly, Maketh Man is not where you find out what happened to Penney, our lovely young friend from the lab. When writing of the Landroth Saga begins, you will learn all the secrets as the chapters go on. (Name of the series is subject to change.) And writing of said saga will begin when I finish watching Fairy Tail, which is currently being released in English.**

 **Also, what happens next? Laxus goes to Tenrou and the remaining events of Fairy Tail happen next. Oh, to Penney and Meyera? Again, please be patient as I wait to begin this adventure with you all.**

 **I can, however, give you guys a few more minor details cause y'all are awesome: Penney is the youngest of three sisters. Meyera is the middle child, and you haven't met Aimee, the oldest. They are the Rossa sisters. I specifically can't answer the question why Penney was in that facility because that reveal is an integral part of that large fic I mentioned earlier. Of note, the sisters are not involved in Fairy Tail events until after the anime is over.**

 **S-S-S-SPOILER ALERT: Specifically, this means that Penney and Meyera and Aimee are nowhere near Tenrou. They are not trapped in suspended animation and continue to age properly just like every other resident of Fioré. Fun times.** **Love and light, fam!** -srf.


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